You, yourself, might have come, sooner or later, to despise him.

The strong man forgives, but the poet whines.

Such, mademoiselle, is the answer which my honesty compels me to make to you.
And now, listen to me.

You have the triumph of forcing me to reflect deeply,--first on you, whom I do not sufficiently know; next, on myself, of whom I knew too little.

You have had the power to stir up many of the evil thoughts which crouched in my heart, as in all hearts; but from them something good and generous has come forth, and I salute you with my most fervent benedictions, just as at sea we salute the lighthouse which shows the rocks on which we were about to perish.